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The following paper presents research on the manufacture of circuit boards with buried optical waveguides using thin-glass sheets (display glass), which represents a further development of earlier research on buried optical waveguide substrates using polymer. An ion-exchange process was deve loped to manufacture the waveguides in thin-glass sheets, thereby eliminating the necessity of m echanically structuring the layers. The waveguide properties were simulated and experimentally validated. The circuit board assembly and the concept for the optical coupling from the module to the board and from the board to the backplane are presented. The design and assembly of pluggable electro-optical transmitter and receiver modules is described. Keywords: Electro-optical PCB, waveguides, ion exchange, two layers, optical coupling, pluggable modules. 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Motivation Optical interconnection technology presents a promising opportunity to transmit an extremely high bandwidth in intrasystems. The channel data rates for today´s copper board-backplane systems reach from 3,125 up to 6,25 Gbps. Future systems need to transfer 10 to 25 Gbps [1]. In an optimal design, it was already shown to transmit 10 Gbps×m over the backplane [2, 3]. To receive high signal integrity it is required to integrate additional filtering or equalizing components and to implement high frequency-compatible PCB ba sis materials. Furthermore, the measures necessary for the electromagnetic shielding lead to limited channel density, above all in connectors. These disadvantages can be overcome by the introduction of hybrid electro-optically integrated interconnection technology [4,5]. Economic considerations will determine when electro-optical circuit boards are commercially released. High interference resistance, low power dissipation, reliab ility, scalability and small space requirement s are apart from a high bandwidth-distance ratio further significant factors driving ahead optical interconnection technology on component carriers in systems. 1.2. State of development and trends of electro-optical circuit boards To improve the today used optical backplanes using glass fibers, the trend of electro-optical circuit boards (EOCB) is being set by integrated waveguide layers, manufactured by planar structuring processes, which are embedded into the |
